Wreck to Race.

[Peter Jones]

Cleaned under the guards while I was in there.



New braklines. I had these made in one piece. The join on top of the beam is hard to get to in the car and it was cheaper this way. That's the old line next to it for comparison. I sleeved the brake line with rubber hose and slit the bracket to put it in there. I'm not making sense am I? Just look at the picture.



Ready to go back in.


In!


Shocks going back in, now with urethane mounts.



I've never really understood the design of this bar, but here's a picture anyway.



And this is as far as I got.



I would have got the lot done but it took me a while to work out how to install the suspension bushes and the red paint took ages to dry.

Callipers and brake bleeding tomorrow!

Pete

[Peter Jones]

How difficult is it to get the rear bar off? 4 bolts and she's done is it?

Easy.
Just remove-

Handbrake cables.
Brake lines.
Shocks.
4 bolts and it's out!

Pete

[Oneofthegreats]

Right here actually!

Matt (Golf Loon) sourced two sets of balljoints and tie rod ends for me and sent them down. Not sure what the individual prices were on the bits, ask Matt for a quote.

When I went to fit the tie rod ends I discovered that one side is a fixed length and has a tie rod end crimped on so i couldn't actually change the tie rod end on that side.

By coincidence Andrew (gtimk5) had listed some brand new assemblies for sale in this post for $75 ea. http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newf...ad.php?t=13209

It turns out that you can fit the adjustable rods to both sides, they're the same.

The assemblies I got from Andrew came as pictured, he was kind enough to include the new rack boots too.

I'm going to use the old adjustable rod to go into my other golf and just change the rod ends on that car.

Pete

Thanks Pete. Champ!

Making excellent progress on this too. Wish I could make this much progress & get as motivated as you.

You'll have to let us know how it drives with the poly bushes.

Last set I had, incl. a full set of poly engine mount's, it was an absolute nightmare to drive everyday. Way to bloody noisey for me. So I went back to genuine VW bushes. Never looked back. Aftermarket standard bushes turn to mush very quickly, especially the engine/gearbox mount's.

In regard's to your rear strut brace, I reckon it should be triangulated like the Neuspeed. At least it tie's both the strut tower's not only together, but also to the chassis rail's.



I have thought about buying one of these, but when you carry stuff around all the time, it's not viable for a street car IMHO.

[Peter Jones]

Regarding the rear strut brace, I've got in the back of my mind that I heard somewhere that some classes don't allow for the rear towers to be braced.

I'm investigating a harness bar (which might perform the same function ) but have more research to do.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

Oh yeah, and I'm only doing the suspension bushes in urethane for the moment. I'm going to leave the engine mounts alone for the moment , they're all new in any case. The exception is the torque reaction mount, I fitted a poly one of these.

I'm not very happy with the fit of the rear shock bushes. I got them really cheap off a local ebay seller who never got around to fitting them so I'm not too fussed. I had to make up some spacers to get them to clamp the body work properly.

Watch out for the rack boots, left and right are different.

Pete

[Water Boy]

Regarding the rear strut brace, I've got in the back of my mind that I heard somewhere that some classes don't allow for the rear towers to be braced.

I'm investigating a harness bar (which might perform the same function ) but have more research to do.

Pete

Yes production class rules: Rear brace must be in the hoop (Roll Cage) dint know why but thats just the way it is

[Peter Jones]

Another day. Off to an easy start with mounting up the callipers.



A bit of stuffing about getting the brake lines tied in nicely to allow movement where needed and to keep everything safe from damage.

The handbrake cables were a bit of a challenge, being Scirocco cables in a MK3 with MK3 brakes I guesse this is about as good as it gets. They weren't quite long enough to get through the retaining clips on the ends of the beam. I cut some rubber hose to protect them where needed. I think it came up pretty neat in the end.




Hub Centric Spacers!

[Peter Jones]

I sorted out the timing issues, the dizzy was put in out of whack.

Once I'd base lined the timing I thought now would be a good time to replace the distributor module.

Before


New module in.



All clean now.



Can anybody spot what I did wrong here? It's not obvious.

The kit of rebuild parts was very comprehensive. Lots of seals, screws, clips, washers, the module itself and a new rotating vane.

I put the dizzy in the car and just couldn't get it to run right. Backfiring, misfiring, stalling and so on. I suspected the module the firing order the plugs, but they had all been running before.

I went through the cam timing again.

This time however when I popped to top off the dizzy I realised my mistake.

I had installed all the new parts out of the kit including this one.



Now I'm feeling foolish!

I swapped back the original 4 cylinder vane and it's running better than ever!

Off to get a wheel alignment first thing tomorrow, then down to the car wash. I'll let you know how it all handles tomorrow.

Pete

[Jarred]

There are some beefy spacers there Pete, 20mm? I hope you got some longer bolts in any case! Don't your wheels clear the mk 3 calipers?

and I'm very glad I didn't have to replace my dizzy, cause I have no idea what you've done wrong! hahah

[Peter Jones]

There are some beefy spacers there Pete, 20mm? I hope you got some longer bolts in any case! Don't your wheels clear the mk 3 calipers?

and I'm very glad I didn't have to replace my dizzy, cause I have no idea what you've done wrong! hahah

Yep 20mm, The wheels clear the calipers fine I just watned to move the wheels out as far as I could and yes I have long wheel bolts to suit in both tapered and spherical seats.

What did I do wrong? See that last picture? Here's a hint- Count the gaps in the ring.

Pete

[Jarred]

What did I do wrong? See that last picture? Here's a hint- Count the gaps in the ring.

Ah-ha. I thought that for a moment, but then thought :why would he have a 5 cyl. dizzy?" and dsisregarded that thought ha! haha

You'll look back on that one day and laugh I'm sure

[Peter Jones]

Yeah the rebuild kit must have been for one of those 5 cylinder Audis. I didn't even think to check. At least it didn't take me too long to figure it out. The sensor module is the same though, so I achieved what I set out to do!

On another note bleeding a completely dry dry brake system is hard to do! It took me a while this morning to get enough fluid in the system to be able to get the pedal up.

In the end I used the compressor set down to 20psi and pressure bled it to get the fluid through the lines. Then I finished it off the usual way.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

And I took it for a trip around the block to check the brakes were working. When I got back I realised I'd removed the brake light switches and hadn't replaced them with any thing. Now I've got a pedal switch set up in this car. $10 from supercheap.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

Ok. It's track time. James (Water Boy) has filled me in on the details. Thanks James!

I'll be filling in the entry form and posting off a cheque tonight for the Phillip Island Circuit Familiarisation to be held on Saturday April 26th 2008.

The regs can be found here. http://www.piarc.com.au/

There's a bit of time to go yet so I'll have time to sort out the last few little issues to make the car trackworthy.

• Bolt in Fire Extinguisher
• Fix fuel pump cutoff circuit
• Restore factory crankcase breather (or install catch can).
• Bonnet restraint

There's also a few non mandatory things I'd like to get done.

• Bolt in the Race Seat.
• Bolt up the Harness
• Bed in the new brakes
• Wear in the new track tyres.

I'll pull the back seat out and generally clean out the cabin and tie every thing down. There's other stuff that should be done like battery and tow point stickers etc, but I don't think that they're required for this sort of event.

I'm going to try and make good use of the instruction available on the day. There's a lot to learn.

The event is open to spectators so all of you that said you'd like to see me out on the track in the $800 e-bay special , here's your chance.

Pete

[Water Boy]

Another thing that is not needed but good is a blue triangle showing where the battery is... Eg on the bonnet front corner passanger side, unless u have relocated your battery